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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




UBRARY OF CONGRESS, r^i 



Young Folk's Library of Choice Literature 



STORIES OF 



GREAT mVEMTORS 



FULTON 

WHITNEY 

MORSE 

COOPER 

EDISON 



HATTIE E. MACOMBER 



EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHIN 
BOSTON 
New York Chicago San 




TWO COPIES RECEIVED 






Copyrighted 

By educational PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

1897. 



fo 



CONTENTS. 



RoHERT Fulton 
Eli WurrNEY 
Samuel Morse 
Peter Cocmt^r 

TH0>L\S a. liDISON 



Page 

7 

41 

79 

121 

147 




FULTON. 



Robert Fulton. 



This story is about a giant. 

Do you believe in them ? 

He peeps out of your coffee cup in the 
morning. 

He cheers you upon a cold day in winter. 

But the boys and girls were not so well 
acquainted with him a hundred years ago. 

About that long-ago, far to the north and 
east, a queer boy lived. 

He sat in his grandmother's kitchen many 
an hour, watching the tea-kettle. 



3 ROBERT FULTON. 

He seemed to be idle. 

But he was really very busy. 

He was talking very earnestly to the giant. 

The giant was a prisoner. 

No one knew how to free him. 

Many had often tried to do this and failed. 

He was almost always invisible. 

But when he did appear, it was in the form 
of a very old man. 

This old man had long, white hair, and a 
beard which seemed to enwrap him like 
a cloak — a cloak as white as snow. 

So his name is The White Giant. 

The boy's name was James Watt. 

He lived in far-away Scotland. 

He sat long, listening to the White Giant as 
he told him many wonderful things. 

The way in which the giant first showed 
himself to James was very strange. 



ROBERT FULTON. 



James noticed that the lid of the tea-kettle 
was acting very strangely. 

It rose and fell, fluttered and danced. 

Now, James had lived all his life among 
people who believed in witches and fairies. 

So he was watching for them. 

And he thought there was somebody in the 
kettle trying to get out. 

So he said, '' Who are you and what do you 
want ? '' 

'' Space, freedom, and something to do,'' 
cried the giant. 

'' If you will only let me out. Til work hard 
for you. 

ril draw your carriages and ships. 

ril lift all your weights. 

ril turn all the wheels of your factories. 

ril be your servant always, in a thousand 
other ways/' 




O {/} 



if 



K '^ 



ROBERT FULTON. n 

If you have now guessed the common name 
of this giant, we will call him Steam. 

At the time James Watt lived, there were 
no steam boats, steam mills, nor raihvays. 

And this boy, though his grandmother 
scolded, thought much about the giant in the 
tea-kettle. 

And he became the inventor of the first 
steam engine that was of any use to the world. 

So, little by little, people came to know that 
steam is a great, good giant. 

They tried in many different ways to make 
him useful. 

They wished very much to make him run 
a boat. 

One man tried to run his boat in a queer 
way. 

He made something like a duck's foot to 
push it through the water. 



12 ROBERT FULTON. 

Another moved his boat by forcing a stream 
of water in at the bow and out at the stern. 

Then came a man named John Fitch. 

He made his engine run a number of oars 
so as to paddle the boat forward. 

He grew very poor. 

People laughed at him. 

But he said, '' When I shall be forgotten, 
steam boats will run up the rivers and across 
the seas.'' 

Then people laughed the harder and called 
him ''a crank.'' 

Mr. Fitch's boat was tried in 1787. 

Now, in 1 765, there happened a good thing 
for this old world. 

A little baby boy was born in that year. 

Perhaps you wonder why it was such a 
good thing for the world. 

Some of you will know why when you read 
that this baby's name was Robert Fulton. 



ROBERT FULTON. 13 

His father was poor. 

His father was a farmer in Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Fulton had two little girls older than 
baby Robert. 

When Robert was grown larger he had 
three sisters and one brother. 

But their father died when they were all 
small. 

Robert did not go to school till he was eight 
years old. 

His mother taught him at home. 

He knew how to read and write, and a very 
little arithmetic. 

His first teacher was a Mr. Johnson. 

Mr. Johnson was a Quaker. 

He thought Robert a dull pupil. 

Robert did not learn his lessons very well. 

But Mr. Johnson soon found that he was 
never idle. 



14 ROBERT FULTON. 

He did not care to play at recess. 

He stayed in and used his pencil in 
drawing. 

He often spent hours in this way. 

Robert soon became fond of going into the 
machine shops. 

He understood machinery very quickly. 

The men always gave him a welcome. 

He didn't get into mischief. 

He often helped the men with his neat 
drawings. 

One day Robert was late in getting to 
school 

The master asked the reason. 

Robert answered that he had been in Mr. 
Miller's shop pounding out lead for a lead 
pencil. 

Mr. Johnson then encouraged him in doing 
such useful things. 



ROBERT FULTON. 15 

In a few days, all the pupils in the school 
had pencils made in that way. 

Mr. Johnson urged Robert to give more 
attention to his studies. 

Robert said, ''My head is so full of thoughts 
of my own that I have n't room there for the 
thoughts from dusty books.'' 

As he was not idle, no doubt this was true. 

When Robert was thirteen, the boys in the 
town had a great disappointment. 

It was nearly July. 

Of course the boys expected to celebrate the 
Fourth. 

But a notice was put up. 

This notice urged the people not to 
illuminate their homes. 

It was very warm w^eather. 

The people then had only candles with 
which to light their homes. 



IQ KOBERT FULTON. 

Candles were very scarce. 

But Robert had some. 

He took them to a shop and exchanged 
them for powder. 

The owner of the store asked him why he 
gave up the candles, which were so scarce and 
dear. 

Robert said, '' I am a good citizen, and if 
our officers do not wish us to illuminate the 
town, I shall respect their wishes.'' 

He found some pieces of paste-board. 

He rolled these himself. 

In this way he made some rockets. 

The store-keeper told him he would find it 
impossible to do this. 

''No, sir," Robert answered, ''there is nothing 
impossible." 

His rockets were a success, and the people 
were astonished. 



ROBERT FULTON. 17 

Robert bought at different times small 
quantities of quicksilver. 

The men in the machine shops were curious 
to know what he did with it. 

But they could not find out. 

For this reason they called him '' Quicksilver 
Bob.'' 

Robert was interested in guns. 

Sometimes he would tell the workmen how 
to improve them. 

The men liked him so well that they were 
always willing to try whatever he advised. 

Robert was fond of fishing. 

One of the workmen often went fishing with 
his father. 

This man sometimes took Robert. 

They had only an old flat boat. 

The boys had to pole the boat from place to 
place. 



18 ROBERT FULTON. 

It was hard work. 

They were sometimes very tired. 

Robert, soon after one fishing excursion, 
went away to visit an aunt. 

He was gone a week. 

While away he made a complete model of 
a little fishing boat. 

This boat had paddle wheels. 

The model was placed in the garret. 

Many years afterward his aunt was proud 
to have it as an ornament on her parlor table. 

Of course the boys arranged a set of paddle 
wheels for their fishing boat. 

After this they enjoyed their fishing much 
more than before. 

Robert Fulton's boyhood was during the 
Revolutionary War. 

He made many queer pictures of the 
Hessian soldiers. 



ROBERT FULTON. 19 

These Hessians were Germans, who had 
been hired by the British to help them fight 
the Americans. 

The people who wished our country to 
belong to England were called Tories. 

Those who wished America to be free were 
called Whigs. 

The Whig boys often fought the Tory boys 
on the soldiers' camp ground. 

The soldiers grew tired of this. 

They stretched a rope to keep the boys out. 

Robert drew a picture in which the Whigs 
crossed the rope and whipped the Tories. 

The boys all thought it a good picture. 

So they tried to make it real. 

They became so troublesome that the town 
officers had to interfere. 

But Robert was all this time fast growing 
up. 



20 ROBERT FULTON. 

He had to choose some way of taking care 
of himself. 

He was more fond of his pencil and brush 
than of anything else. 

Near his home, had lived a celebrated 
painter. 

His name was Benjamin West. 

Benjamin West's father and Robert s father 
had been great friends. 

Mr. West had become famous. 

He now lived in England. 

Robert thought he would like to be an 
artist, too. 

So he left his home and went to the city of 
Philadelphia. 

He knew that it meant hard work. 

He was industrious and pains-taking. 

He had many friends. 

Benjamin Franklin was one of his friends. 



ROBERT FULTON. 21 

Soon he did very nice work. 

In the four years after he was seventeen, he 
not only took care of himself, but sent money 
to his mother and sisters. 

He spent his twenty-first birthday at home. 

He had then earned enough money to buy 
a small farm for his mother. 

For this farm he paid four hundred dollars. 

He helped his family to get nicely settled in 
their new home. 

Then he went back to Philadelphia. 

At this time Mr. Fulton, as we must now 
call him, was not well. 

Partly for this reason he decided to take a 
voyage to Europe. 

He carried letters from many well-known 
Americans. 

He found friends in Europe. 

Benjamin West was kind to him there. 



ROBERT FULTON. 23 

He soon had plenty of work to do. 

One of his friends was an English gentleman, 
who was called the Earl of Stanhope. 

The Earl was much interested in canals. 

Canals, you probably know, are artificial 
rivers. 

Boats are drawn on them by horses, which 
walk along a path on the shore. 

The path is called the tow-path. 

Railways were almost unknown then. 

So canals were very useful in carrying goods 
across the country. 

They had been in use in Europe and Asia 
for hundreds of years. 

Mr. Fulton invented a double inclined-plane. 

This could be used in raising and lowering 
canal boats without disturbing their cargoes. 

The British government gave Mr. Fulton a 
patent upon it. 



24 ROBERT FULTON. 

Mr. Fulton wrote a book about canals and 
the ways in which they help a country. 

He sent copies of this book to the President 
of the United States, and other men in high 
offices. 

He thought canals would help America. 

But it was ten years before he could get 
people to think much about it. 

Then Mr. Fulton helped in planning the 
Erie Canal. 

This was very successful. 

You can see this canal now. 

It is in the State of New York and is still 
used. 

Mr. Fulton planned a cast-iron aqueduct 
which was built in Scotland. 

An aqueduct is often made to carry water to 
cities. 

He invented a mill for sawing marble, a 



ROBERT FULTON. 25 

machine for spinning flax, another for scoop- 
ing out earth, called a dredging machine, and 
several kinds of canal boats. 

You will wonder before reaching the end of 
this story how one man could do so many 
things. 

But you must remember that he was never 
lazy as a boy, and so learned to make good 
use of every moment. 

In 1797, Mr. Fulton went to the greatest 
city in France, called Paris. 

There he made a new friend. 

This was Joel Barlow, an American and a 
poet. 

Mr. Fulton thought that all ships should 
have the freedom of the ocean. 

He thought it would take hundreds of years 
to get all nations to consent to this. 

He believed that he could find a quicker way. 



2Q ROBERT FULTON. 

He thought it would be best to blow up all 
warships. 

He made a little sub-marine boat. 

Sub-marine means under the sea. 

This boat could be lowered below the 
surface of the water. 

He found a way to supply it with air. 

But he could not get it to run swiftly. 

It took much money to build such boats. 

He tried to get the French government to 
help him. 

He was often tired and disappointed. 

But he never stopped trying. 

He tried to destroy some large boatSo 

This was to be done with torpedoes. 

But he was not very successful. 

He succeeded in destroying one boat. 

But since then others have carried out his 
plan, and torpedoes are often used in war. 



ROBERT FULTON. 27 

This little story is told of Mr. Fulton : — 
He was once in New York working upon 
his torpedoes. 

He invited the Mayor and many others to 

hear him lecture. 

They came and were all much interested. 

He showed them the copper cylinders which 
were to hold the powder. 

Then he showed them the clockwork, which, 
when it was set running, would cause the 
cylinders to explode. 

He turned to a case and drew out a peg. 

He then said, '' Gentlemen, this torpedo is 
all ready to blow up a vessel. 

It contains one hundred and seventy pounds 
of powder. 

The clockwork is now running. 

If I should allow it to run fifteen minutes it 
would blow us all to atoms." 



28 ROBERT FULTON. 

His audience was much frightened. 

They all ran away. 

Mr. Fulton put the peg back in its place. 

He told them it was then safe. 

Not until then did they dare come back. 

But now our giant, Steam, became the 
friend of Mr. Fulton. 

Many had tried to put this giant to work. 

But at first he seemed rather hard to teach. 

Long before, a poet had written these lines, 
which show how much people hoped to make 
the giant do : — 

'' Soon shall thy arm, unconquered Steam, afar 
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car." 

It w^as a true prophecy. 

Mr. Fulton married the daughter of a Mr. 
Walter Livingston. 

This Mr. Livingston had a relative who was 
a great man, and a rich man. 



ROBERT FULTON. 29 

He was much interested in all inventions. 

He often helped inventors with his money. 

He had long believed that boats could be 
- moved by steam. 

At one time the State of New York gave 
him the right of all steam boats for twenty 
years. 

He was given the right if he would get one 
steam boat running within a year. 

But the year passed and the boat was not 
built. 

Everybody made fun of his '' grand rights.'' 

At this time our government made him our 
minister to France. 

There he met Robert Fulton for the first time. 

And in Paris Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton 
made a steam boat. 

When it was finished they invited their 
friends to come and see it tried. 



30 ROBERT FULTON. 

Early upon the morning when they hoped 
to succeed, a messenger came. 
He bore sad news. 
The new boat had broken in two. 
The machinery was too heavy for it. 
It had sunk to the bottom of the river Seine. 
Mr. Fulton had not had his breakfast. 
He hurried to the river. 
He worked standing in the cold water. 
In twenty-four hours he had saved the 

machinery, and some other parts of the boat. 

But it made him ill. 

He never was so strong again. 

Of course he felt greatly discouraged. 

They went to work again. 

They built another boat. 

This was a success. 

It was sixty-six feet long, and moved by 
wheels on the side. 



ROBERT FULTON. 31 

Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton decided to 
try again in America upon the Hudson River. 

Mr. Livingston was given again the same 
privileges by the State of New York. 

But this time Mr. Fulton was his partner. 

They were given two years in which to 
make their boat. 

They were to make one which could go four 
miles an hour. 

It took much money. 

Mr. Fulton promised to ask only a certain 
sum of Mr. Livingston. 

But this sum proved to be too small. 

He went to see a friend. 

He talked long and earnestly to him. 

But the friend grew tired and told him he 
must go home or go to bed. 

Mr. Fulton wanted one thousand dollars. 

His friend said he would see him again. 




THE ERUCTOR AMPHIBOLIS. 

A COMBINED STEAMBOAT AND LOCOMOTIVE CONSTRUCTED BY OLIVER EVANS A NATIVE OF 

NEWPORT, DELAWARE, IN 1804. 




PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF MACHINERY IN FULTON'S CLERMONT. 



By permission of 
Providence & Stonington Steamship Co. 



ROBERT FULTON. 33 

Mr. Fulton came again before the poor man 
had had any breakfast. 

He gave him no peace. 

But he got his money at last. 

Mr. Fulton was much laughed at for trying 
to make such a boat. 

The boat was called by people, '' Fulton s 
Folly.'^ 

His friends would listen politely to him. 

But he said he knew they did not believe in 
him. 

He often, as he walked about, heard people 
laugh and sneer at him. 

But at last the boat was done. 

The sun rose smiling on that August 
morning. 

The world was enjoying its morning nap. 

Only a few people were on the shores. 

Gracefully the boat was moved from the 
Jersey shore. 










•- c 
6 .5 

4; o 



ROBERT FULTON. 35 

Those who saw were amazed. 

Old sailors were frightened. 

When they saw a boat with no sails, they 
thought it an evil spirit. 

But the long line of black smoke which they 
saw was only the breath of the dear old giant, 
Steam. 

At last he had something to do. 

This boat was called the Clermont. 

It passed the city of New York. 

It passed the beautiful Highlands of the 
Hudson. 

It puffed patiently on until it reached Albany. 

All along the shores people watched it 
breathlessly. 

Everybody stopped sneering and cheered. 

The Clermont had gone one hundred and 
fifty miles in thiry-two hours. 

Except that the ocean steamships are larger, 



36 ROBERT FULTON. 

handsomer, and more finely finished, they are 
much like Mr. Fulton's Clermont. 

Who can doubt Mr. Fulton's joy at his 
success. 

At last he had found a way to make all 
nations know each other. 

Mr. Fulton had other troubles after this. 

Wicked people tried to steal his invention 
from him. 

But no one else has ever been given credit 
for it. 

Everyone who tried a ride upon the boat 
found it much nicer than jolting along in a 
stage coach. 

In two years a regular line of boats was 
running between the great city of New York 
and its capital city. 

Mr. Fulton built other boats. 

Some of them were ferry-boats. 



' ^-^"'-l^^^ 




^|V.:yx.l*fa-i \ 




38 ROBERT FULTON. 

A ferry from New York to Long Island is 
still called by his name, Fulton Ferry. 

Do you suppose the thousands of people 
who cross by it, ever think of patient, 
industrious, hard-working, Robert Fulton ? 

In January, 1815, Mr. Fulton went to 
Trenton, New Jersey, as witness in a lawsuit. 

The weather was very severe. 

Mr. Fulton became much chilled. 

In coming back his boat was caught in 
the ice. 

It was several hours before it could be 
moved. 

You remember Mr. Fulton was not very 
strong. ^ 

He w.^,s ill for several days. 

He was very anxious about a boat which he 
was building. 

He left his bed too soon. 



ROBERT FULTON. 39 

He was then taken very ill indeed. 

And upon the twenty-fourth of February, 
18 1 5, the world lost this great man. 

Everyone mourned his loss. 

The great city of New York was in 
mourning. 

He was buried in the Livingston vault in 
Trinity Churchyard, New York. 

No monument has ever been raised over 
this great man. 

But the boats which every year ply back 
and forth upon lake, river, and ocean, are 
constant reminders of his great work for the 
world. 




ELI WHITNEY, 



Eli Whitney, 



The war, called the Revolution, was ended. 

The treaty of peace had been signed. 

America had won her freedom. 

Our country then was smaller than now. 

It contained only about four million people. 

These people were widely scattered. 

The world did not think of the United 
States as an important country. 

It was thought to be about as important as 
Denmark or Portugal is now. 

We call one part of our country the South. 

The South of this time w^as very different 
from the South of to-day. 



41 



42 ELI WHITNEY. 

Fewer cities were to be seen. 

Many forests covered the land. 

The plantations were few. 

Plantation is the southern word for farm. 

There were not many slaves then. 

People hoped slavery would die out. 

They thought it might if it were let alone. 

Many people left the South to find other 
homes. 

This was because they could not make a 
good living there. 

Indigo, rice, and cotton were raised. 

But only a little cotton was planted. 

This was because it was such hard work to 
get it ready to sell. 

Cotton grows upon a small shrub. 

People of olden times called it the '' wool of 
trees." 

The Germans still call it '' tree-wool/' 



ELI WHITNEY. 43 

One kind is called '' sea-island'' cotton. 

This is because it grows well upon the low, 
sandy islands of the sea. 

. Some such islands are found near South 
Carolina. 

This cotton likes the salt which it finds in 
the soil. 

The herb cotton grows to a height of from 
eighteen to twenty-four inches. 

The land is made ready for the seed during 
the winter. 

As soon as the frost is gone Mother Earth 
is given her baby seeds to care for. 

Soon the beautiful plantlets appear. 

The leaves are of a dark green. 

Then later come the pale yellow flowers. 

The plants must then be well cared for. 

Toward autumn the fruit is seen. 

This looks like a walnut still in its rough 
coat. 




COTTON UALL6. 



ELI WHITNEY. 45 

Then the pods burst. 

The field is then beautiful. 

It looks as if it were covered with snow. 
. Then comes the hard work of the picking. 

All hands upon the plantation must then 
work in the fields. 

The slaves of long ago were kept very busy 
during this season. 

The women and children worked. 

They have to be careful that the cotton is 
quite dry when picked. 

If it were damp the cotton would mould. 

This would spoil it for use. 

Can you imagine a snow-white field dotted 
with black people? 

Their bright eyes must have shone still 
more brightly there. 

The cotton does not all ripen at one time. 

But it must be gathered soon after the pods 
are burst. 



ELI WHITNEY. 47 

This is because the sun injures the color of 
the cotton. 

Or the rain and dews injure it. 
. Or the winds may blow it away. 

So the cotton pickers were kept busy from 
August until the frost came. 

They went over the same fields many times. 

Then, after a busy day in the field, other 
work remained to be done. 

The cotton pickers sat upon the ground in a 
circle. 

From the midst of the cotton they took the 
black seeds. 

These seeds were very troublesome. 

They are covered with hairs. 

They cling fast to the cotton. 

These naughty children of the plant love 
their mother. 

So fast do they cling to her, that a person 



43 ELI WHITNEY. 

could clean but one pound of cotton in a 
whole day. 

So you may understand why so little was 
raised. 

In 1784, eight bags of cotton were taken 
from the United States to England. 

These were seized by the custom officers. 

These officers are those who look after 
goods sent in or out of a country. 

If money is to be paid upon the goods, it is 
called a duty. 

The custom officers must see that the duty 
is paid. 

These men said that this cotton could not 
have come from America. 

During the next two years less than one 
hundred-twenty bags were sent there from our 
country. 

The treaty of peace with England was made 
in 1794. 



ELI WHITNEY. 49 

None of the treaty-makers then knew that 
any cotton was raised in America. 

Would you like to know why, fifty years 
later, a million bales were sent from America? 

This is the story: 

In the war with England, America had some 
brave generals. 

One of these was General Nathaniel Greene. 

He had helped to win victories in the South. 

The State of Georgia gave him a tract of 
land. 

General Greene lived with his family upon 
this land. 

He at last died there. 

Mrs. Greene was very lonely. 

She went to the North to visit her friends. 

On her voyage home she met a pleasant 
gentleman. 

He was a young man, only twenty-seven 
years of age. 



50 ELI WHITNEY. 

He, too, was going to Georgia. 
His name was Eli Whitney. 
And now you must know something of his 
story. 

Eli Whitney was born in Massachusetts in 

1765. 

His people were farmers. 

They were not rich people. 

Eli's father had a workshop. 

In this shop he worked upon rainy days. 

He made wheels and chairs. 

Eli grew up like other farm boys. 

He helped on the farm. 

He attended the district school. 

He took care of the cattle and horses. 

But very early in his life he became fond of 
tools. 

He used to creep into his father's shop. 

He could scarcely wait to be old enough to 
use the tools there. 



ELI WHITNEY. 51 

One of the interesting tools was a lathe for 
turning chair posts. 

His father allowed him the use of all these, 
as soon as he was large enough to take care of 
them. 

After that, he was always at work at some- 
thing. 

He liked work in the shop much more than 
work upon the farm. 

Eli's mother died when he was a little 
boy. 

This is a sad event in any boy's life. 

When Eli was about twelve years old, his 
father took a journey from home. 

He was gone two or three days. 

When he returned, he called the housekeeper. 

He asked her what the boys had been doing. 

She told him what the elder boys had done. 

'' But what has Eli been doing?" said he. 



52 ELI WHITNEY. 

'' He has been making a fiddle/' was the 
answer. 

'' Ah ! " said the father, '' I fear Eli will take 
his portion in fiddles." 

The fiddle was finished like a common 
violin. 

It made pretty good music. 

Many people came to see it. 

They said it was a fine piece of work for a 
boy. 

Afterwards people brought him their violins 
to mend. 

He did the mending nicely. 

Every one was surprised. 

They brought him other work to do. 

Eli's father had a nice watch. 

Eli loved to look at it. 

It was a great wonder to him. 

He wished to see the inside of it. 



ELI WHITNEY. 53 

His father would not allow this. 

One Sunday the family were getting ready 
for church. 

Eli noticed that his father intended leaving 
his watch at home. 

He could not lose such a good chance. 

So he pretended to be quite sick. 

His father allowed him to stay at home. 

Soon he was alone with the wonderful little 
watch. 

He hurried to the room where it hung. 

He took it down carefully. 

His hands shook, but he managed to open it. 

How delightful was the motion of those 
wheels ! 

It seemed a living thing. 

Eli forgot his father. 

He thought only of the wonderful machinery. 

He must know just how it went. 



54 ELI WHITNEY. 

He took the watch all to pieces before he 
remembered how wrong it was to do so. 

Then he began to be frightened. 

What if he could nt put it together! 

He knew his father was a very stern man. 

Slowly and carefully the boy went to work. 

And so bright was he that he succeeded in 
getting it together all right. 

His father did not find out the mischief. 

Several years afterward Eli told him about it. 

When Eli was thirteen years old his father 
married a second time. 

Eli's stepmother had a handsome set of 
table knives. 

She valued them highly. 

One day Eli said, '' I could make as good 
knives as those if I had tools. 

''And I could make the tools if I had com- 
mon tools to begin with.'' 



ELI WHITNEY. 55 

His mother laughed at him. 

But soon after one of the knives was broken. 

Eli made a blade exactly like the broken one, 
except its stamp. 

Soon Eli was fifteen years of age. 

He wished to go into the nail-making busi- 
ness. 

It was during the Revolution. 

Nails were made almost entirely by hand. 

They were in great demand. 

They brought good prices. 

Eli asked his father to bring him a few 
tools. 

His father consented. 

The work was begun. 

Eli was very industrious. 

He made good nails. 

He also found time to make more tools 
for his own use. 



r^Q ELI WHITNEY. 

He put in knife blades. 

He repaired broken machinery. 

He did many other things beyond the skill 
of country workmen. 

Eli worked in this way two winters. 

He made money. 

He worked on the farm in the summer. 

At one time Eli took a journey of forty 
miles. 

He visited every workshop on the way. 

These visits taught him much. 

He found a man who could go back with 
him and help him in his business. 

At the close of the war it did not pay to 
go on with the nail-making. 

The ladies began a new fashion about that 
time. 

This was the use of long pins for fasten- 
ing on their bonnets. 



ELI WHITNEY. 57 

He made very nearly all the pins used. 

Eli made these pins with great skill. 

This work was done in the time spared 
from his farm work. 

He also made excellent walking canes. 

During all these years Eli's schooling had 
been received at different times at the dis- 
trict school. 

He was very fond of arithmetic. 

During his nineteenth year he made up 
his mind to have a college education. 

His step-mother did not wish him to do this. 

But he worked hard and saved his money. 

A part of the time he taught school. 

He was twenty-three when he entered Yale 
College. 

He borrowed some money, for which he 
gave his note. 

At one time one of the college teachers , 



r^^ ELI WHITNEY. 

wished to show his pupils some experiments. 
But some of the things to be used were 
broken. 

Eli offered to mend them. 

This he did, and succeeded in surprising 
every one. 

A carpenter lived near his boarding place. 

Eli asked for the loan of some of his tools. 

The careful carpenter did not wish to lend 
them. 

He at last gave his consent in this way: — 

The gentleman with whom Mr. Whitney 
boarded must promise to pay all the damages. 

But he soon saw how skilful Mr. Whitney 
was. 

He was surprised and said : 

*' There was one good mechanic spoiled 
when you went to college." 

Mr. Whitney graduated in 1792. 



ELI WHITNEY. ^^^f 59 

He was engaged by a gentleman in Georgia 
to teach his children. 

It was on this journey to his new work that 
he met Mrs. Greene. 

Mrs. Greene liked Mr. Whitney very much. 

When they reached Savannah, she invited 
him to her home. 

At this time he had a great disappointment. 

The gentleman who had hired him to come 
to Georgia coolly told him his services were 
not wanted. 

He had no friends. 

He was out of money. 

But Mrs. Greene became his good friend. 

He went to live at her house. 

Here he began the study of law. 

Mrs. Greene was one day doing some 
embroidery. 

She broke the frame upon which she was 
working. 



gQ ELI WHITNEY. 

She did not know how to finish the work 
without it. 

Mr. Whitney looked at it carefully. 

Then he made her a new frame. 

It was even better than the other one 
had been. 

Of course Mrs. Greene was much pleased. 

Mr. Whitney also made fine toys for the 
children. 

Soon after this, a party of gentlemen visited 
at Mrs. Greene's home. 

They were nearly all men who had been 
officers during the war. 

Mr. Greene had been their general. 

They began talking of the South. 

They wished something might be done to 
improve that part of the country. 

They wished it might be made a better 
place in which to live. 



ELI WHITNEY. 61 

They spoke of the fine spinning machines 
that were coming into use in England. 

Much land in the South could be used for 
cotton. 

This could be sent to England for manu- 
facture. 

The South could become a rich country in 
this way. 

But there was one great difficulty. 

It cost so much to clean the cotton. 

Mrs. Greene said, '' I know who can help you. 
''Apply to my young friend, Mr. Whitney^ 
He can make anything/' 

She then showed the gentlemen her frame 
and other things which Mr. Whitney had made. 

Mr. Whitney said he had never seen cotton 
or its seed. 

None was raised near the home of the 
Greene's. 



62 ELI WHITNEY. 

Mr. Whitney did not make any promises. 

But the next day he went to work. 

He went first to the city of Savannah. 

There he searched among the warehouses 
and boats. 

At last he found a small parcel of cotton. 

This he carried home. 

He shut himself up in a small basement 
room. 

His tools were poor. 

He made better ones. 

No wire could be bought in Savannah. 

So he made his own wire. 

Mrs. Greene and a Mr. Miller were the only 
persons allowed to come into his work-shop. 

Day after day the children wondered to hear 
the queer clinking and hammering. 

I'hcy laughed at Mr. Whitney. 

But that did not trouble him. 



ELI WHITNEY. G3 

Before the end of the winter the machine 
was nearly perfect. 

Its success seemed certain. 

Mrs. Greene was very happy over the work. 

She was eager that people should know 
about this wonderful invention. 

She could not wait until a patent was 
secured. 

A patent is given by the government. 

It is given ' to prevent others from claim- 
ing an invention. 

Often it keeps people from manufacturing* 
the article without the permission of the 
owner. 

So Mrs. Green invited a party of gentlemen 
from all parts of the state to visit her. 

These gentlemen were taken to see the 
machine do its work. 

They were greatly astonished. 



C4 KLI WHITNEY. ' 

For what did they see? 

This curious little machine cleaned the cot- j 
ton of its seed. 

And it would clean in a day more than a 
man could do in months. 

They went to their homes. 

They told everybody about it. 

Great crowds began coming to see it. 

But they were refused permission to do so. 

This was because it had not yet been 
patented. 

• So one night some wicked men broke into 
the building. 

They stole the cotton-gin. 

You can well imagine how dreadful this was. 

Mr. Whitney had no money. 

So Mr. Miller agreed to be his partner. 

Mr. Miller had come to Georgia from the 
North. 



ELI WHITNEY. 65 

He, too, was a graduate of Yale College. 

He afterward married Mrs. Greene. 

He became Mr. Whitney's partner in May, 

1773. 

Perhaps you wonder why the machine was 

called a gin. It was a short way of saying 

engine. 

A gin is a machine that aids the work of 
a person. 

The cotton-gin was made to work much 
the same as the hand of a person. 

It dragged the cotton away from the seed. 

And now begins the sorrowful part of the 
story. 

Before Mr. Whitney could get his patent, 
several other gins had been made. 

Each claimed to be the best. 

The plans were all stolen from Mr. 
Whitney's. 



ELI WHITNEY. 



One was the roller-gin. 

This crushed the seed in the cotton. 

Of course this injured the cotton. 
. Another was the saw-gin. 

This was exactly like Mr. Whitney's, except 
that the saws were set differently. 

Many lawsuits were begun. 

Mr. Whitney went to Connecticut. 

There he had a shop for making the gins. 

When the suits began he had to return 
to Georgia. 

In this way two years went by. 

By this time everyone knew the value of 
the gin. 

Mr. Whitney went to New York. 

There he became ill. 

His illness lasted three weeks. 

Then he was able to go on to New 
Haven. 



68 ELI WHITNEY. 

There he found that his shop had been 
destroyed by fire. 

All his machines and papers were burned. 

He was four thousand dollars in debt. 

But neither Mr. Miller nor Mr. Whitney 
were the kind of men who give up easily. 

Mr. Miller wrote that he would give all 
his time, thought, labor, and all the money he 
could borrow to help. 

'' It shall never be said that we gave up 
when a little perseverance would have carried 
us through,'' he said. 

About this time bad news came from 
England. 

The cotton, you remember, was then all 
sent there for manufacture. 

English manufacturers now claimed that 
the cotton was injured by the gin. 

This was in 1796. 



ELI WHITNEY. 69 

Miller and Whitney had thirty gins working 
in different places in Georgia. 

Some were worked by cattle and horses. 

Others were run by water. 

Soon, however, the manufacturers found that 
the Whitney cotton gin did not injure the 
cotton. 

The first lawsuit was decided against 
Miller and Whitney. 

They asked for another trial. 

But this was refused them. 

Everywhere through the South they were 
cheated and robbed. 

Yet all the time the South was growing 
richer because of the cotton gin. 

Slaves grew more and more valuable. 

For negroes can endure the heat of the^ 
cotton fields. 

But white men can not. 



ELI WHITNEY. 71 

The planters of the South bought more 
and more slaves. 

So slavery grew stronger because of the 
cotton gin. 

Several states made contracts with Mr. 
Whitney. 

They agreed to pay him certain sums of 
money. 

But South Carolina broke her contract. 

All these things made Mr. Whitney sick 
at heart. 

He said that he had tried hard to do right 
by every one. 

And it stung him to the very soul to be 
treated like a swindler or a villain. 

The people of Georgia tried to prove that 
somebody in Switzerland had invented the 
cotton gin. 

Tennessee broke its contract. 



72 ELI WHITNEY. 

There were hii^h-minded men who tried to 
help Mr. Whitney. 

They were able to do only a little for him. 

In 1803, Mr. Miller died. 

Mr. Whitney was then left to fight his 
battles alone. 

Things grew a little brighter as time went 
on. 

Mr. Whitney received some money on his 
invention. 

But the greater part of it had to be spent 
in lawsuits. 

A suit was begun in the United States Court. 

But the time of his patent was almost out. 

He had made six journeys to Georgia. 

One gentleman said that he never knew 
another man so persevering. 

In 1798, Mr. Whitney made a contract with 
the government of the United States. 



ELI WHITNEY. 73 

By this contract he was to manufacture 
fire-arms. 

He established his factory near New Haven. 

The place is now called Whitneyville. 

It is a beautiful place. 

A waterfall furnished the power to run his 
machinery. 

Here Mr. Whitney worked hard. 

He had machinery to make. 

He had to teach his own workmen. 

For eight years he worked to fill this 
contract. 

He arose as soon as day appeared. 

Look in any part of the factory you might, 
you would see something which he, himself 
had done. * 

He improved many tools. 

He made better guns than had ever been 
made. 



74 ELI WHITNEY. 

So that for these things, too, our country 
is indebted to Mr. Whitney. 

In 1812, he made new contracts. 

Another war with England began in that year. 

Mr. Whitney's guns never failed to be all 
right. 

Other men took contracts of the same kind. 

But their guns were failures. 

Mr. Calhoun, the Secretary of War, said to 
Mr. Whitney, '' You are saving your country 
seventy-five thousand dollars a year." 

This was by his improvements in fire-arms. 

Mr. Whitney tried to get the government 
to extend the time of the patent upon the 
cotton-gin. 

But this was refused. 

That did not seem very grateful, did it ? 

Robert Fulton, the inventor of the first 
steamboat, was his friend. 



ELI WHITNEY. 75 

They had many troubles in common. 

Mr. Whitney's last days were his happiest 
days. 

Such patience, perseverance, and skill must 
count in the long run. 

His factory made him quite a rich man. 

Some of the southern states showed their 
gratitude. 

In i8 1 7, Mr. Whitney married Miss Edwards 
of Connecticut. 

He had a son and three daughters. 

The people of New Haven respected him. 

They gave him great honor. 

He died on January 8, 1825. 

The little cotton-gin had done a great 
work. 

The sunny South was covered with beauti- 
ful plantations. 

The cotton fields shone in the sunlight. 



ELI WHITNEY. 77 

Riches were beginning to fill the pockets 
of the planters. 

Only one blight remained upon the land. 
. This was the dreadful system of slavery. 

And that, too, has been destroyed. 

We wish that Mr. Whitney might see the 
South of to-day. 

He did not live to know how great a 
curse slavery might be. 

He did not foresee that his cotton-gin 
might help to cause a great war. 

Yet the blue and the gray fought and died. 

The blood of many a hero stained a south- 
ern field. 

All this that the cotton-pickers might be 
free ! 

All this that our country might be truly 
'' the land of the free and the home of the 
brave! '' 




S. F. B. MORSE. 



Samuel FiNLEY Breese Morse 



If everything were now as it was in 1791, 
what a queer place this world of ours would be 
to us ! 

A hundred years ago ! 

Suppose we imagine ourselves living in the 
year 1800. 

The railroads then were very few and poor. 

'' Fulton's Folly," the first steamboat, had 
not yet frightened the sailors in New York 
Harbor, with its long line of bhick smoke. 

Lighting by means of gas was yet unknown. 

Electric lights were not even dreamed of. 

79 



3Q SAMUEL MORSE. 

Even kerosene, which we think makes so 
poor a light, was then unused. 

So there are many, many things, common 
and useful to us now, which were unknown 
to the world in 1800. 

You have heard of the giant. Steam. 

There is yet another giant which God has 
placed in the world for man's use. 

This is Electricity. 

Is it not strange that this great power 
should have been so long unused in the w^orld ? 

Boys and girls can understand how useful 
this power now is. 

So you will be interested in knowing some- 
thing of the man who helped to introduce to 
the world this great giant, electricity. 

The baby who was given this long name, 
Samuel Finley Breese Morse, was born in 
Charlestown, Massachusetts. 



SAMUEL MORSE. 81 

The date of his birth was April 27, 1791. 

He was called Samuel Finley for his great- 
grandfather. 

His mother's name, as a girl, was Elizabeth 
Breese. 

You will see that he won fame enough to 
cover each and every one of these names.. 

Finley Morse had, as he grew older, two 
brothers younger than himself. 

Their names were Sidney E. Morse, and 
Richard Gary Morse. 

Finley was sent first to an old lady's 
school. 

He was but four years old when he started. 

The school was very near his home. 

The school mistress was known as, '' Old 
Maam Rand." 

She was an invalid and unable to leave 
her chair. 



ft2 SAMUEL MORSE. 

So she had a long rattan. 

When the children did not mind, she could, 
with her long rattan, reach them at the fur- 
ther side of the room. 

One punishment of Mrs. Rand's was to pin 
a naughty child to her dress. 

As early as this part of his life, Finley 
Morse tried his hand at drawing. 

He drew^ Mrs. Rand's picture upon a chest 
of drawers. 

Instead of a pencil he used a pin. 

So Mrs. Rand pinned him to her dress. 

Of course he did not like that. 

He tried to get away. 

This tore the dress. 

Then Mrs. Rand had to use her rattan. 

When seven years of age Finley was sent 
to school at Andover. 

He went to Phillip's Academy. 



SAMUEL MORSE. 83 

While there the father wrote letters to 
his boy. 

He gave his boy good advice. 

He told him about George Washington. 

He also told him about another great man. 

This man was a statesman of Holland. 

He did all the business for that republic. 

Yet he had time to go to evening amuse- 
ments. 

Some one asked this statesman how he did 
this. 

He said there was nothing so easy, for 
that it was only doing one 'thing at a time, 
and never putting off anything until to-morrow 
that could be done to-day. 

Finley's parents were always kind to him. 

He soon became a manly boy. 

He was the kind of boy who seemed to 
know that he must one day be a man. 



84 SAMUEL MORSE. 

So he worked hard at school. 

He began early to think and act for him- 
self. 

When he was but thirteen he wrote a 
sketch of the '' Life of Demosthenes/' 

He sent it to his father. 

This his father kept carefully. 

It showed the genius, learning and taste 
of his boy. 

This bright boy w^as ready for college at 
the age of fourteen. 

But his father thought it best to keep him 
at home for a year. 

Finley, when a boy, was always fond of 
drawing. 

When but fifteen, he painted a fairly good 
picture in water colors. 

This represented a room in his father's 
house. 



SAMUEL MORSE. 85 

His father, his two brothers and himself 
stood by a table. 

His mother sat in a chair. 

On the table was a globe, at which they 
were all looking. 

His room at college was covered with 
pictures of his own making. 

One of these was called, '' Freshmen Climb- 
ing the Hill of Science." 

The poor fellows were scrambling to the 
top of a hill on their hands and knees. 

Finley had taken no lessons in art, yet he 
drew many portraits. 

The other boys were all delighted to have 
their pictures drawn by him. 

They paid him a dollar apiece. 

This kept him in spending money. 

He also painted upon ivory. 

For these he had five dollars each. 



86 SAMUEL MORSE. 

So, when Finley Morse graduated from 
Yale college, he was more fond of drawing 
and painting than of anything else. 

Finley at this time was a fine looking boy. 

He had a pleasant smile. 

He was always courteous. 

Every one liked him. 

He was as fond of a frolic as any one. 

At one time the college cooks did not do 
their work to suit the boys. 

So the boys gave them a mock trial. 

They sent a report of the trial to the college 
president. 

The bad cooks were dismissed. 

Afterwards the boys had better things to eat. 

At another time the boys went to a paper 
mill near by. 

They bought a great quantity of paper. 

This they made into a baloon. 



SAMUEL MORSE. 37 

It was eighteen feet in length. 

They filled it with air, and sent it on its 
journey. 

It sailed finely, and soon was out of sight. 

They tried it again. 

The second time it took fire and was soon 
nothing but ashes. 

About this time Finley heard his first 
lecture upon electricity. 

After graduating, he returned to his father's 
house in Charlestown. 

There he wrote a letter to his brothers 
with a queer kind of ink. 

The writing did not show at all until 
heated by fire. 

His brothers had to write to him to find 
out how to read it. 

About this time F^inley made a new friend. 

This friend was Washington Allston. 



88 SAMUEL MORSE. 

Mr. Allston was a great painter. 

He learned to love Finley Morse. 

Mr. Allston spent most of his time in 
London. 

Finley begged his people to allow him to 
go to London w^ith Mr. Allston. 

They finally gave their consent. 

So Mr. Morse made his first voyage across 
the Atlantic. 

They landed at Liverpool. 

They had to go from there to London in 
a stage coach. 

As soon as he arrived he wrote to his 
parents. 

In his letter he said that he wished they 
could hear from each other in an instant. 

'' But three thousand miles are not passed 
over in an instant. 

So we must wait four long weeks before 
we can hear from each other again.'' 



SAMUEL MORSE. 89 

Even then he longed for a telegraph. 

In London he had the help of another 
great artist. 

This was Benjamin West. 

He, too, was an American. 

Mr. Morse wished to become a student in 
the Royal Academy. 

He had to make a drawing of Hercules. 

Hercules, you know, was one of the heroes 
of early Greece. 

The story is that he did very many brave 
deeds. 

Finley's drawing was to be taken to Mr. 
West. 

He worked very hard upon it for two weeks. 

Then he went to Mr. West with it. 

Mr. West said, ^^ Very well, sir, very well; 
go on and finish it.'' 

'' It is finished," replied Finley. 



90 SAMUEL MOKSE. 

'' Oh, no," said Mr. West. '' Look here, and 
here, and here." 

So, when the mistakes were pointed out, 
Finley saw them. 

He took the drawing home and worked 
patiently for another week. 

Then he brought it to Mr. West again. 

Mr. West handed it back to Mr. Morse, 
saying : 

'' Very well indeed, sir. Go on and finish it." 

''Is it not finished?" said Mr. Morse, for 
he was almost discouraged. 

'' See," said Mr. West, ''you have not marked 
this muscle nor that finger joint. 

So another three days were spent on the 
drawing. 

Again it was taken back. 

"Very clever indeed," said Mr. West, "very 
clever. Now go on and finish it." 



SAMUEL MORSE. 91 

'' I cannot finish it/' replied Mr. Morse. 

Then the old man patted him on the 
shoulder and said : 

'' Well, I have tried you long enough. 

'' Now, sir, you have learned more by this 
drawing than you would have learned in double 
the time by a dozen half finished drawings. 

'' Finish one picture, sir, and you are a 
painter." 

Mr. Morse took this good advice. 

He went to work upon a large picture. 

It was a picture of the '' Dying Hercules.'' 

He first modeled his picture in clay. 

This he did so well that he received a gold 
medal for it. This was on May 13, 18 13. 

His picture, too, was given great praise. 

It was counted as one of the twelve 
best among the two thousand pictures. 

So Mr. Morse went on patiently and care- 
fully in this w^ork. 



92 SAMUEL MORSE. 

He made many good friends in London. 

One of these friends was the poet, Col- 
eridge. 

Mr. Morse was a great comfort to his 
parents. 

He was careful with his money. 

He and a young Mr. Leslie, lived and 
painted together. 

He spent all his money to get helps in 
his work. 

He visited all the picture galleries, and spent 
days in the study of pictures. 

At this time England and America were 
at w^ar. 

Americans were sometimes made prisoners 
and kept in the prisons of England. 

Mr. Morse tried to help some of them. 

You have heard of the great Erench gen- 
eral. Napoleon. 



SAMUEL MORSE. 93 

You know of the many wars he had. 

In 1 8 15, Napoleon met his enemies, the 
English and Prussians. 

They had a battle at Waterloo. 

Napoleon was defeated. 

The people of England were anxious for news. 

But how slowly news came in those days ! 

It took many days to carry the good 
tidings. 

The battle was fought on the i8th day 
of June. 

It was not until July that the news came 
of the victory of the English general. 

Mr. Morse wrote about it to his parents.. 

He told how anxiously the people had 
waited. 

Finally the people heard the booming of 
cannon. 

The bells were rung. 



94 SAMUEL MORSE. 

People laughed and cried for joy. 

Would it not seem strange to us now to wait 
for our news so long ? 

Yet the inventor of the telegraph had to wait 
often very long. 

But at last the time came for Mr. Morse 
to return to America. 

He sailed in August, 1815. 

He bore with him the good wishes of his 
many friends in London. 

He had a stormy voyage. 

A ship signaled his ship for help. 

The captain did not wish to send help. 

He said he had all he could do to attend to 
his own ship. 

Mr. Morse told him that, if he did not help 
them, he would publish the facts when they 
reached America. 

So the captain thought better of it. 



SAMUEL MORSEo 95 

He helped to save the ship. 

When he landed on his return Mr. Morse 
found that the people of America had heard of 
him. 

They knew of the fine pictures he had 
painted. 

He was now but twenty-four years of age. 

He set up a studio in Boston. 

But the people of America were not as 
interested in art then as now. 

He waited many months for something to 
do. 

But nobody came for a picture. 

He left Boston almost penniless. 

Then he began painting portraits in differ- 
ent places. 

He received fifteen dollars for each portrait. 

He went to Concord, New Hampshire. 

There he met a beautiful young lady. 



9G SAMUEL MORSE. 

Her name was Lucretia P. Walker. 

She had a very sweet temper. 

She always used good sense. 

Mr. Morse became more and more success- 
ful with his portraits. 

He received more money for them. 

He went on a journey to the South. 

There he found much to do. 

He made three thousand dollars. 

Then he came back to Concord. 

There he married Miss Walker. 

Mr. and Mrs. Morse lived for a few years 
in South Carolina. 

Then they came to New Haven, Connecticut. 

His father came to live with them there. 

Mr. Morse began to paint a great picture 
at Washington. 

It was called ''The House of Represen- 
tatives.'' 



SAMUEL MORSE. 97 

Washington is the capital city of the 
United States. 

The picture, when finished, was very beauti- 
ful. 

It was sold at last to an Englishman. 

About this time a great friend of America 
visited Washington. 

Flave you heard of General La Fayette? 

You can read what great things he did for 
our country. 

Every American loved him then. 

Even the people who live now, love his 
memory. 

Mr. Morse was engaged to paint the por- 
trait of General La Fayette. 

He began the picture. 

Before he had finished, he received dreadful 
news from home. 

His loved wife had died very suddenly. 



98 SAMUEL MORSE. 

He hastened home. 

It seemed too hard to bear. 

Not long afterwards he lost his father. 

He then went to live in New York. 

There he worked hard at his art. 

His artist friends made him president of 
their society. 

This was the National Academy. 

While in New York he heard some lectures 
about electricity. 

He thought about it and talked much with 
his friends. 

He wished to visit beautiful Italy. 

So, in 1829, he sailed for Europe. 

His friends there gave him a hearty wel. 
come. 

He visited many cities. 

He met General La Fayette again. 

He visited him in his home. 



SAMUEL MORSE. 99 

Mr. Morse had always been fond of inven- 
tions. 

He himself invented a pump at one time. 

At another, he tried his hand at making a 
machine for cutting marble. 

He was always experimenting with colors, 
and other things used by artists. 

The year 1832 had arrived. 

You will see, by and by, that it is a good 
date to remember. 

People knew almost nothing about speed in 
traveling. 

In that year the longest railroad was in the 
southern part of the United States. 

It was one hundred thirty-five miles long. 

The next longer was in England. 

It was thirty miles long. 

The next was in Massachusetts. 

It was ten miles long. • 



100 SAMUEL MORSE. 

The mails were carried in coaches. 

On the first day of October, 1832, Mr. 
Morse sailed for America. 

The name of this ship was the '' Sully.'' 

The passengers were much interested in 
some things which had lately been found out 
about electricity. 

People had long known that lightning and 
electricity were the same. 

Signals had been made with electricity. 

But the thought which came to Mr. Morse 
had never entered the mind of man before. 

He could think of nothing but a telegraph. 

He thought night and day. 

He seemed to see the end from the beginning. 

As he sat upon the deck of the ship after 
dinner, he drew out a little note book. 

He began his plan in this little book. 

From the beginning he said, '' If a message 



SAMUEL MORSE. 101 

will go ten miles without dropping, I can 
make it go around the globe/' 

And he said this again and again during 
the years that came after. 

Sleep forsook him. 

But one morning at the breakfast table 
he announced his plan. 

He showed it to the passengers. 

And five years after, when the model was 
built, it was found to be like the one shown 
that morning on board the ship '' Sully." 
'' The steed called Lightning ( say the Fates ) 
Was tamed in the United States ; 
Twas Franklin's hand that caught the horse, 
Twas harnessed by Professor Morse." 

Upon landing in America a long struggle 
began. 

For twelve long years, Mr. Morse worked 
to get people to notice his invention. 



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DIAC.KAM SHOWING lUli MOKSE ALPHAI'-Ii I" ANP mm, ^ x. . .- M [. kt f)K THE TELEGRAPH LINE. 



SAMUEL MORSE. 103 

It would take much money to construct 
a real telegraph. 

But money Mr. Morse did not have. 

He had three motherless children to pro- 
vide for. 

He lived in a room in a fifth story of a 
building belonging to his brothers. 

This room was his study, studio, bed 
chamber, parlor, kitchen, drawing room and 
work shop. 

One one side of the room was his cot bed. 

On the other were his tools. 

He brought his simple food to his room 
at night. 

This he did, that no one might see how 
little he had to eat. 

He often gave lessons in painting. 

One pupil did not pay promptly. 

Mr. Morse asked to be paid. 



104 SAMUEL MORSE. 

The pupil gave him ten dollars, asking if 
he would accept it. 

He said it would keep him from starving. 

He had had nothing to eat for twenty-four 
hours. 

The government, at this time, was giving 
some work to American artists. 

Mr. Morse knew he deserved to have a 
picture to paint. 

But, through a mistake, he was not given 
one. 

He felt much hurt by this. 

But perhaps he would not have pushed 
his telegraph through, if he had been given 
plenty of painting to do. 

As it was, Morse, the painter, became Morse, 
the inventor. 

It was not until 1837 that Mr. Morse had 
his wonderful invention ready to exhibit. 



SAMUEL MORSE. 105 

During that year many people saw it. 

Many thought it a silly toy. 

Few dreamed of its importance. 

Mr. Alfred Vail, whose father and brother 
had large brass and iron works, was one of 
those who believed in it. 

Mr. Vail decided to assist Mr. Morse. 

He was young and liked machinery. 

Long after, Mr. Morse said that much of 
the success of the telegraph was due to Mr. 
Vail. 

In 1838, Mr. Morse asked Congress to give 
him aid. 

He wished to build a telegraph between 
Baltimore and Washington. 

The President and others saw the telegraph 
exhibited. 

A gentleman, named Mr. F. O. J. Smith, 
helped Mr. Morse with money. 



106 SAMUEL MORSE. 

But many Congressmen laughed at the idea. 

Do you not think they felt ashamed when 
they found how great a thing they had been 
laughing at? 

While waiting for Congress to decide, Mr. 
Morse went to Europe again. 

He tried to get a patent in London, but it 
was refused him. 

The French people gave him a paper which 
didn't mean much. 

He met some great men, however, who did 
all they could for him. 

Did you ever see a daguerreotype ? 

It is an old fashioned portrait. 

Perhaps you can find some at home. 

Mr. Morse met in Paris the man who first 
took these pictures. 

His name was Mr. Daguerre. 

You see how the pictures were named. 



SAMUEL MORSE. 107 

P He was exhibiting his pictures at this time. 
, So the two greatest things in Paris in those 
' days were the electro-magnetic telegraph and 
daguerreotypes. 

Mr. Daguerre and Mr. Morse became fast 
friends. 

Mr. Daguerre taught Mr. Morse how to 
take daguerreotypes. 

When Mr. Morse returned to America, he 
took some portraits of this kind. 

He also taught others how to do so. 

Having returned to America, he found 
plenty to do. 

He wished to try the telegraph under water. 

He arranged about two miles of wire. 

He put it into New York Harbor. 

A row boat was used in placing it. 

It was a beautiful moonlight night. 

People walking along the shore might well 



108 SAMUKL MORSE. 

wonder what kind of fish were to be caught 
with such a long line. 

At day break Professor Morse was ready 
for his experiment. 

Two or three characters were sent on the line. 

Then no more could be sent. 

Some sailors, in pulling up their anchor, 
had caught the wire. 

They pulled in about two hundred feet. 

Then they cut the wire. 

So ended the first cable. 

The Vails had been good friends to Mr. 
Morse. 

But they became afraid to spend any more 
money. 

Then, indeed, Mr. Morse was in despair. 

A bill had been brought before Congress, 
asking for thirty thousand dollars. 

This was to build the trial telegraph line. 



SAMUKL MORSE. 109 

Oh, how anxiously Mr. Morse waited ! 

Delay after delay came. 

Many Congressmen in their speeches, made 
all manner of fun of the bill. 

Twilight came upon the evening of March 
3rd, 1842. 

It was the last day of the session of Con- 
gress. 

There were still one hundred and nineteen 
bills to dispose of. 

It seemed impossible that the telegraph 
bill could be reached. 

Mr. Morse had patiently waited all day. 

At last he gave up all hope. 

He left the building and went to his hotel. 

He planned to leave for New York on an 
early train. 

As he came down to breakfast next morn- 
ing, a young lady met him. 



110 SAMUEL MORSE. 

'' I have come to congratulate you/' she 
exclaimed. 

'' Upon what? " inquired the professor. 

*'Upon the passage of your bill/' she replied. 

''Impossible! Its fate was sealed last 
evening. 

You must be mistaken." 

'^ Not at all/' said the young lady; ''father 
sent me to tell you that your bill was passed. 
It was passed just five minutes before the 
close of the session." 

Mr. Morse was almost overcome with the 
news. 

He promised the young lady that she should 
send the first message over the new line 

Mr. Morse received a sad message in the 
midst of his joy. 

This was the news of the death of his 
dearest friend, Mr. Allston. 



SAMUEL MOUSE. HI 

He hastened to the home of his friend in 
Cambridge. 

The brush with which Mr. Allston had been 
painting was still moist. 

Mr. Morse begged this as a memorial of 
his friend. 

He afterwards gave it to the National 
Academy. 

Now that the bill was passed, how hard he 
and his friend worked to build the line ! 

They tried putting the wires underground. 

But this proved very expensive. 

Then they tried the poles as we have them 
now. 

This succeeded nicely. 

1844 was the year for the appointing of a 
new President. 

The Whig party were to hold their con- 
vention at Baltimore, in May. 



112 SAMUEL MORSE. '^VH 

The managers of the telegraph worked hard 
to get the line done before the meeting. 

And, although the line was not finished, 
signals were arranged by which the message 
could be given. 

At last the day came. 

Henry Clay was nominated for President. 

The news was sent by the wires to Wash- 
ington. 

Passengers arrived from Baltimore an hour 
later. 

They were astonished to find the news 
already known. 

On the 24th of May the line was ready for 
its test. 

Every one was anxious. 

Mr. Vail was at the Baltimore end of the 
line. 

Miss Ellsworth, the young lady who had 



SAMUEL MORSE. 113 

the promise of sending the first message, 
was with Mr. Morse. 

Remember the twelve long, weary, anxious 
years, during which Mr. Morse had worked 
and waited. 

It was an anxious moment. 

Miss Ellsworth chose her message from 
the Bible. 

It is found in Numbers, 23rd chapter, -23rd 
verse. 

The words are: ^^What hath God wrought!'' 

This was received at once by Mr. Vail. 

Professor Morse said this of the words of 
the message : — 

'' It baptized the American Telegraph with 
the name of the author." 

He meant by this, that God was the author 
of the telegraph. 

What a glad, happy time followed ! 



114 SAMUEL MORSE. 

Everybody congratulated Mr. Morse. 

The democratic convention took place two 
days later. 

There was much excitement. 

James K. Polk was nominated for Presi- 
dent. 

All sorts of messages were sent over the 
new telegraph line. 

Mr. Morse loved his country. 

And through his whole life worked for its 
interests. 

He rejoiced in having his invention called 
an American invention. 

He was at one time in Europe. 

His friend, Mr. F. O. J. Smith, was embark- 
ing on his voyage for home. 

Mr. Morse said to him : — 

'' When you arrive in sight of dear Amer- 
ica, bless it for me. 



SAMUEL MORSE. 115 

'' And when you land, kiss the very ground 
for me. 

^' Land of lands ! Oh, that all our country- 
men would but know their blessings ! 

'' God hath not dealt so with any nation. 

'' We ought to be the best, as well as the 
happiest and most prosperous of all nations. 

'' Nor should we forget to whom we are in 
debt for all these blessings. 

^^'Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is 
a reproach to any nation.' '' 



I 



There were still many hard things for Mr. 
Morse to endure. 

Wicked men tried to steal his invention 
from him. 

They pretended to have invented telegraphs. 



116 SAMUEL MORSE. 

The nations of Europe did not treat him 
justly. 

But, little by little, the telegraph lines were 
built over the country. 

Little, by little, the world came to know 
and love the name of Samuel F^. B. Morse. 

Honors of all sorts were given him. 

But, through all, he was the same kind, 
patient man. 

The Sultan of Turkey was the first foreign 
prince to honor Mr. Morse. 

But he was followed by many others. 

You have noticed that Mr. Morse never had 
a chance to enjoy a home. 

In 1847, he bought a beautiful home upon 
the Hudson. 

In the following year he married Miss 
Griswold, a lady born at Sault Ste. Marie. 

They called their new home Locust Grove. 



SAMUEL MORSE. 117 

There they enjoyed life greatly. 

Professor Morse had a telegraph instrument 
in his study. 

He afterwards bought a beautiful home in 
Njw York City. 

There they spent their winters. 

These words were written by a friend to 
Mrs. Morse, alluding to her husband: — 

'' Though he did not ' snatch the thunder 
from the heaven/ he gave the electric current 
thought, and bound the earth in light." 

To Mr. Morse belongs also the honor of the 
submarine telegraph. 

A successful telegraph of this kind was laid 
near New York City. 

Other gentlemen became interested in this. 

Chief among these were Mr. Cyrus W. Field 
and his brother David Dudley Field. 

The story of the cable laid across the 
Atlantic is a long one. 



lis SAMl'KL MORSE. 

Hut Mr M'>r<(^ \\\\\\ to >^cc this, too, a 
success. 

When Mr. Morse was eij^hty years of a^e, 
his statue was erected in Central Park, New 
\'ork. 

This was i\onc by tlie telegraph operators of 
the ccnmtrx . 

It represented Mr. Morse as sending- the 
first message of the telegraph, " What hath 
God wrought." 

Mr. Morse was proscMit when the statue was 
unveiled. 

In 1S72 he became verv ill. 

His busy life was at an end. 

The whole country mourned, as news 
flashed cn-er the wires that Professc^r Mi^rse 
was dviui^'. 

The light was going out 01 uiose bright, 
kind eyes. 



SAMUKL MOJtSE. 



119 



The fin^^ers that harnessed the steed, Light- 
ning were powerless. 

The great brain, that had worked so hard 
for the world, was ready for rest. 

The great heart, that never kept an unkind 
thought, ceased to beat. 

All America mourned for him. 

Messages were received from Europe, Asia 
and Africa, paying tribute to the dead. 

Few men have lived such lives as did 
Samuel Finley Breese Morse. 





PETER COUPER. 



Peter Cooper, 



On the seventh of April, in 1883, the great 
city of New York was in mourning. Flags 
were at half-mast. The bells tolled. 

Shops were closed, but in the windows were 
pictures of a kind-faced, white-haired man. 

These pictures were draped in black. 

All day long tens of thousands of people 
passed by an open coffin in one of the 
churches. 

Some of these people were governors, 
some millionaires. 

There were poor women, too, with little 
children in their arms. 



121 



122 PETER COOPER. 

There were workmen in their common 
clothes. 

There were ragged newsboys. 

And all these people had aching hearts. 

The great daily papers printed many 
columns about the sad event. 

People in England sent messages by the 
Atlantic cable that they, too, had sad hearts. 

Who was this man for whom the world 
mourned on that April day? 

Was he a president? Oh, no. 

A great general ? Far from it. 

Did he live magnificently and have splendid 
carriages and fine diamonds ? 

No, he was simply Peter Cooper, a man 
ninety-two years old, and the best loved man 
in America. 

Had he given money? 

Yes, but other men in our country do that. 



PETEK COOPER. 123 

Had he traveled abroad, and so become 
widely known ? 

No, he would never go to Europe because 
he wished to use his money in a different way. 

Why, then, was he loved by so many? 

One of the New York papers gave this 
truthful answer : 

'' Peter Cooper went through his long life as 
gentle as a sweet woman, as kind as a good 
mother, as honest as a man could live, and 
remain human." 

Some boys would be ashamed to be thought 
as gentle as a girl, but not so Peter Cooper. 

He was born poor, and was always willing 
that everyone should know it. 

He despised pride. 

When his old horse and chaise came down 
Broadway, every cartman and omnibus driver 
turned aside for him. 



124 PETER COOPER. 

Though a millionaire, he was their friend 
and brother, and they were proud and fond of 
him. 

He gave away more than he kept. 

He found places for the poor to work if 
possible. 

He gave money to those he found were 
worthy. 

And though he was one of the busiest men 
in America, he always took time to be kind. 

His pastor, Mr. Collyer, said this of him : — 

'' His presence, wherever he went, lay like a 
bar of sunshine across a dark and troubled 
day. I have seen it light up the careworn 
faces of thousands of people. It seemed as if 
those who looked at him were saying to 
themselves; 'It cannot be so bad a world as 
we thought, since Peter Cooper lives in it and 
blesses us.' '' 



PETER COOPEli. 125 

But how did this poor boy become a 
millionaire ? And how did he get people to 
love him so? 

He did it, boys and g'irls, by making up his 
mind to do it at first, and then sticking to it. 

Nobody could have had more hard things 
to overcome than Peter Cooper. 

His parents were poor and had nine 
children. 

His father moved from town to town, always 
hoping to do better. 

He forgot the old saying, '' A rolling stone 
gathers no moss." 

When the fifth baby was born, he was 
named after the Apostle Peter, because his 
father said, ^' This boy will come to something." 

But he was not a strong boy. 

He was able to go to school but one year of 
his life, and then only every other day. 



126 PETER COOPER. 

His father was a hatter, and when Peter 
was eight years old he pulled hair from rabbit 
skins for hat pulp. 

Year after year he worked harder than he 
w^as able, but he was determined to win. 

When his eight little brothers and sisters 
needed shoes, he ripped up an old one to see 
how it was made. Always after that he made 
the shoes for the family. 

Do you think a lazy boy would have done that? 

When he was seventeen, he bade his anxious 
mother good-bye, and started for New York to 
make his fortune. 

Do you know what a lottery is ? 

It is a way dishonest people have of making 
money. 

Tickets are sold for prizes, and of course 
only one person can get the prize, while all the 
rest must lose their money. 



PETER COOPER. 



Soon after Peter Cooper reached New York 
he saw an advertisement of a lottery. 

He might draw a prize by buying a ticket. 

Each ticket cost ten dollars. 

Peter had just that much money. 

He thought the matter over carefully. 

He wished very much to have some money, 
for then he could help his mother. 

So he bought a ticket, and drew^ — nothing. 

Poor boy ! he was now penniless. 

But he never touched games of chance again. 

Years afterward he used to say, ''It was the 
cheapest piece of knowledge I ever bought.'' 

Day after day the tall, slender boy walked 
the streets of New York looking for work. 

At last he found a place. 

It was in a carriage shop. 

Here he bound himself as apprentice for 
five years at two dollars a month and board. 



128 PETER COOPER. 

You see he could buy no good clothes. 

He had no money for cigars or pleasures of 
any kind. 

He helped to bring carriages for rich men's 
sons to ride in. 

There is an old saying, that '' everybody 

has to walk at one end of life," and they are 

fortunate who walk at the beginning and ride 

at the close. 

When his day's work was over he liked to read. 

His companions made fun of him because 
he would not join them. 

He made a little money by extra work. 

He hired a teacher, to whom he recited 
evenings. 

He was often very ti-red, but he never 
complained. 

He had many friends because he was 
always good-natured. 



PETER COOPER. 129 

He used often to say to himself, '' If ever I 
get rich I will build a place where the poor 
girls and boys of New York may have an 
education free." 

Was n't that a queer thought for a boy who 
earned only fifty cents a week ? 

Yet perhaps his even dreaming such dreams 
helped him to do the great things of which I 
shall tell you. 

Now, Peter noticed that the tools which 
they worked w^ith in the carriage shop were 
not very good. 

So he began to try to make better ones. 

He succeeded in doing so, but Mr. Wood- 
ward, the man for whom he worked, had all 
the benefit of his work. 

But at last Peter's apprenticeship was over. 

Much to his surprise Mr. Woodward one 
day called him into his office. 



i;^0 PETER COOPER. 

^' You have been very faithful," he said, '^and 
I will set you up in a carriage manufactory of 
your own. 

'' You could pay me back the money 
borrowed in a few years." 

This was a remarkable offer for a poor 
young man. 

But Peter had made it a solemn rule of his 
life never to go in debt. 

So he thanked Mr. Woodward very earnestly, 
but declined his offer. 

It was then Mr. Woodward's turn to be 
astonished. 

But he knew Peter was right, and respected 
his good judgment in the matter. 

We may now call Peter Cooper a mechanic. 

A mechanic is one who has skill in using 
tools in shaping wood, metals, etc. 

Peter now found a situation in a woolen 
mill at Hempstead, Long Island. 



PETER COOPER. 131 

Here he received nine dollars a week. 

Still he kept trying to find better ways of 
doing things. 

He invented a machine for shearing cloth, 
and from that earned five hundred dollars in 
two years. 

With so much money as this he could not 
rest until he had visited his mother. 

He found his parents deeply in debt. 

He gave them the whole of his money, and 
promised to do more than that. 

His father had not made a mistake in 
naming him after the Apostle Peter. 

During this time Mr. Cooper had learned to 
know a beautiful girl named Sarah Bedell. 
This girl became his wife. 

They moved to New York. 

Here Mr. Cooper had, a grocery-store. 

A friend advised him to buy a glue factory 
which was for sale. 



132 PETER COOPER. 

He knew nothing- of the business, but he 
thought he could learn it. 

He soon made not only the best glue, but 
the cheapest in the country. 

For thirty years he carried on this business 
almost alone, with no salesman and no 
book-keeper. 

He rose every morning at daylight, kindled 
his factory fires, and worked all the forenoon 
making glue. 

In the afternoon he sold it. 

In the evenings he kept his accounts, wrote 
his letters, and read with his wife and children. 

He worked this way long after he had an 
income of thirty thousand dollars a year. 

This was not because he wanted to have so 
much more money for himself. 

You remember he had a plan to carry out 
which would take much money. 



PETER COOPER. 133 

That was to build his free school for the 
poor. 

He had no time for parties or pleasures. 

But the people of New York knew he was 
both honest and intelligent. 

They asked him to be a member of the 
City Council, and President of their Board 
of Education. 

Peter Cooper never refused to do anything 
which might help others. 

So he did not refuse these offices. 

I must tell you now about Mr. Cooper's first 
child, and how fine a thing it was to have an 
inventor for a papa. 

Mr. Cooper made for this baby a self-rocking 
cradle, with a fan attached to keep off the 
flies, and with a musical instrument to soothe 
the dear baby into dreamland. 

Mr. Cooper's business prospered. 




THE "best friend."— first LOCOMOTIVE BUILT IN AMERICA. BUILT BY PETER COOPEn. 



PETER COOPER. 135 

Once the glue factory burned, with a loss of 
forty thousand dollars. 

But at nine o'clock the next morning there 
was lumber on the ground for a factory three 
times as large as the one burned. 

He then built a rolling mill and furnace in 
Baltimore. 

They were then trying to build the Baltimore 
and Ohio railroad. 

Only thirteen miles of the road had been 
finished. 

The directors were about to give up the work. 

There were many sharp turns in the track. 

The directors were discouraged because they 
thought no engine could be made to make 
those turns. 

Mr. Cooper knew that this road would help 
his rolling mill. 

Nothing could discourage him. 



PETER COOPER. I37 

He went to work and made the first 
locomotive made in America. 

He attached a box-car to it. 

Then he invited the directors to take a ride. 

He took the place of engineer himself. 

Away they flew over the thirteen miles in an 
hour. 

The directors took courage, and the road was 
soon finished. 

Years after, when Mr. Cooper had become 
a great man, he was invited to visit Baltimore. 

The old engine was brought out, much to 
the delight of the people, who cheered again 
and again at sight of it. 

Mr. Cooper soon built at Trenton, N. J., the 
largest rolling mill in the United States. 

He also built a large blast furnace, and 
steel and wire works in different parts of 
Pennsylvania. 




^ S 



U 6 



PETER COOPER. 139 

He bought the Andover iron mines. 
He built eight miles of railroad in this 
rough country. 

Over this road he carried forty thousand 
tons a year. 

The poor boy, who once earned but 
twenty-five dollars a year, had become . a 
millionaire. 

No good luck accomplished this. 
But these are the things that did it : 
Hard work. 

Living within his means. 
Saving his time. 

Common sense, which helped him to 
look carefully before he invested his 
money. 
Promptness. 
Keeping his word. 
Mr. Cooper was honorable in all his business. 



140 PETER COOPER. 

Once he said to a friend who had an interest 
in the Trenton works : 

'' I do not feel quite easy about the amount 
we are making. We are making too much 
money. It is not right." 

The price was made lower at once. 

Do you not think Peter Cooper was an 
unusual kind of a man to lower the price of 
an article just because the world needed it so 
much? 

He was now sixty-four years of age. 

He had worked day and night for forty 
years to build his Free College. 

He had bought the ground for it. 

And now for five whole years he watched his 
great, six-story, brown-stone building as it grew. 

The man who was once a penniless lad 
should teach many through these great stones 
some of the lessons he knew so well. 



PETER COOPER. 141 

Some of these are industry, economy and 
perserverance. 

The words which he wrote and placed in 
a box in the corner stone are not too hard for 
you to read. 

''The great object that I desire to accom- 
plish by the erection of this Institution is 
to open the avenues of scientific knowledge to 
the youth of our city and country, and so 
unfold the volume of Nature that the young 
may see the beauties of creation, enjoy its 
blessings, and learn to love the Author from 
whom Cometh every good and perfect gift/' 

But would the poor young men and women 
of New York who worked hard all day care 
for an education ? 

Some people said no. 

But Mr. Cooper thought of his own boy- 
hood, and believed that young people loved 




Oj< ') Li' I'^Sl i 



NEW YORK CITVV 



PETER COOPER. I43 

books, and would be glad of a chance to study 
them. 

, And when the grand building was opened 
students crowded in from the shops and 
factories. 

Some were worn and tired, as Peter Cooper 
had often been in his youth. 

But they studied eagerly in spite of that. 

Every Saturday night two thousand came 
together in the great hall. 

There the most famous people in the world 
lectured before them. 

Every year nearly five hundred thousand 
read in the free library and reading rooms. 

Four thousand pupils came to the night 
school to study science and art. 

The white-haired, kindly-faced man went 
daily to see the students. 

They loved him as a father. 



lU PETER COOPER. 

His last act was to buy ten type-writers for 
the girls in that department. 

Has the work paid? 

Ask any of those young men and women 
who have gone out from Cooper Institute to 
earn their own living. 

Not one of them had to pay a cent for his 
education. 

No one is admitted who does not expect to 
earn his living. 

Mr. Cooper did not love weak, idle young 
people, who are willing their parents shall take 
care of them. 

The work has grown so large that more 
money is needed — perhaps another million. 

Mr. Cooper gave it two millions of dollars. 

Many are turned from the doors because 
there is no more room. 

Some of the pupils from the Institute have 
become teachers. 



PETER COOPER. 145 

One receives two dollars an hour for teaching. 

Several engrave on wood. 

One receives one hundred and fifty dollars 
a month. 

Another, a lady, married a gentleman of 
wealth, and to show her gratitude to Mr. 
Cooper has opened another '' Free School of 
Art.'' 

Is it any wonder that when Peter Cooper 
died thirty-five hundred came up from the 
Institution to lay roses upon his coffin. 

His last words to his son and daughter 
were not to forget Cooper Union. 

They have just given one hundred thousand 
dollars to it. 

Mr. Cooper had many friends among the 
great and good of the land. 

He died as unselfishly as he had lived, and 
who can measure the good he did in the world? 




EDISON 



A Great Inventor. 



Thomas A. Edison was born in Milan, 
Ohio, February ii, 1847. 

There was nothing in Milan to make a boy 
wish to do great deeds. 

There was a canal there. 

Thomas had one great help — his mother. 

She had been a teacher. 

Her greatest wish for her son was that he 
should love knowledge. 

Thomas had a quick mind. 

He inquired into everything. 

He was fond of getting every little thing 
well learned. 

He never did things by halves. 



147 



148 A GREAT INVENTOR. 

He loved to try experiments. 

When Thomas was a very little boy, only 
six years old, and still wearing dresses, he did 
a very funny thing. 

He was one day found missing. 

His frightened parents searched for him 
long and anxiously. 

Where do you think he was found ? 

They found him in the barn, sitting on a 
nest of goose eggs, with his dress spread out 
to keep them warm. 

He thought he could hatch some goslings 
as well as the mother-goose. 

He had placed some food near by so that he 
might stay as long as necessary. 

He went to a regular school only two months. 

His father and mother were his teachers. 

His father, to encourage him to read, paid 
him for every book which he read. 



A GREAT INVENTOR. 149 

But Thomas did not need to be paid to read, 
for he read with pleasure every volume he 
could get hold of. 

When he was ten years old, he was reading 
such books as Gibbon's '' History of Rome," 
Hume's '' History of England,'' and Sear's 
'^-listory of the World." 

Besides these, he had read several books 
about chemistry. 

He loved to read about great men and their 
deeds. 

When he played, it was at building plank 
roads, digging caves, and exploring the banks 
of the canal. 

When only twelve years of age, he was 
obliged to go out into the world and earn his 
own living. 

He obtained a place as train-boy on the 
Grand Trunk Railroad, in Eastern Michigan. 



150 A GREAT IXVENTOH. 

He sold apples, peanuts, song-books, and 
papers. 

He had such a pleasant, sunny face that 
everyone liked to buy of him. 

He succeeded so well that soon he had four 
boys working under him. 

This was not enough to keep him busy. 

He had never lost his liking for chemistry. 

He managed to trade some of his papers for 
things with which to try experiments. 

He found a book which helped him. 

He fitted up an old baggage car as a room 
for his experiments. 

He was afraid some one would touch 
his chemicals ; so he labelled every bottle, 
''Poison.'' 

Soon this busy boy had another business. 
He bought three hundred pounds of old 
type from the '' Detroit Free Press." 



A GREAT INVENTOR. 151 

He had gained a little knowledge of printing 
by keeping his eyes open when buying papers. 

Soon a paper, called the '' Grand Trunk 
Herald/' was printed by Master Tom. 

This paper was twelve by sixteen inches in 
size. 

It was filled with railway gossip and many 
other things of interest to travelers. 

Baggagemen and brakemen wrote articles 
for it. 

George Stephenson, who built a great bridge 
at Montreal, liked it so well that he ordered 
an extra edition for his own use. 

Everybody liked it. 

The '' London Times " spoke of it as the 
only paper in the world published on a 
railway train. 

But the '' Grand Trunk Herald " had a sad 
ending. 



152 A GREAT INVENTOR. 

Do you know what phosphorus is? 

It is a substance which will take fire of 
itself if not kept under water. 

Tom's bottle of phosphorus was thrown to 
the floor by the jolting of the car. 

Soon everything was on fire. 

The conductor rushed in and threw all the 
type and chemicals out of the car. 

He also gave the young chemist a thrashing. ' 

Poor Thomas gathered up what was left. 

He put his things in the basement of his 
father's house. 

Thomas's father now lived at Port Huron. 

Thomas always slept at home. 

He now printed another and a larger journal. 

This was called the '' Paul Pry," 

In this he published an article which one of 
his subscribers did not like. 

The angry man, meeting Thomas on the 



A GREAT INVENTOR. I53 

banks of the St Clair River, picked him up 
and threw him in. 

Thomas was a good swimmer and reached 
the shore in safety. 

But he did not care for the printing busi- 
ness any more. 

During the four years in which Thomas 
Edison was a train-boy, he had earned two 
thousand dollars and given it all to his 
parents. 

When in Detroit, he read as much as 
possible from the public library. 

Once he thought he would begin with 
number one and read each of the thousand 
volumes. 

He read until he had finished a long row of 
hard books on a shelf fifteen feet long. 

Then he made up his mind that anyone 
would have to live as long as Methuselah to 



154 A GREAT INVENTOR. 

read a library through, and gave up the plan. 

Thomas became interested in telegraphy 
during the Civil War. 

He used to telegraph the headings in his 
paper ahead one station. 

He thought this a good way to advertise. 

He finally bought a good book about 
electricity. 

Soon the basement of the house at Port 
Huron was filled with many things beside 
printing presses. 

He used stove-pipe wire, and soon had a 
telegraph wire betwen the basement and the 
home of a boy friend. 

Perhaps it was a good thing that all the 
children in the Edison family were not like 
Thomas. 

Had they been, the poor old house would 
scarcely have held them. 



A GREAT INVENTOR. 155 

But the mother was proud of all that 
Thomas did. 

She did not worry over the bottles, wires, 
' strings, and printing presses. 

About this time Thomas did a brave thing. 

The station agent at Mt. Clemens had a 
baby boy two years old. 

This baby crept on to the track in front of 
a train just coming in. 

Quick as thought, young Edison rushed to 
the track and saved the child at the risk of 
his own life. 

The baby's father was very grateful and 
offered to teach Thomas telegraphy. 

Of course, Thomas was very happy, and 
accepted the offer. 

He came to Mt. Clemans every evening, 
after working hard all day. 

He did so well that, in five months, he was 
given a position at Port Huron. 



156 A GREAT INVENTOR. 

He earned six and one-quarter dollars a week. 

He worked almost night and day, so that he 
might learn all he could about it. 

His mother said that the world would hear 
from her boy some day. 

Afterwards he worked in several places. 

In Indianapolis, though not yet seventeen, 
he invented his first telegraph instrument. 

This was thought to be a great thing for 
so young a boy to do. 

He lost several places because he tried new 
ways. 

At last, he was obliged to walk nearly all 
the way to Louisville because he had no 
money. 

Here he was given a good position. 

He stayed several years. 

Under the telegraph rooms was an elegant 
bank. 



A GREAT INVENTOR. I57 

One day, while experimenting, he spilled a 
great bottle of acid. 

This acid went through the floor into the 
bank below» 

Of course it spoiled the ceiling, handsome 
carpets, and furniture. 

So the unfortunate inventor had to leave 
Louisville. 

He finally gave up trying to be a telegraph 
operator. 

He opened a little shop. 

He invented many things, and kept on 
thinking. 

He could not make his inventions successful, 
for he had little money. 

He thought so hard that he forgot everything 
else. 

Once he was asked to speak before a 
company. 



158 A GREAT INVENTOR. 

He forgot all about it. 

They sent for him, and found him at the top 
of a house putting up a telegraph line. 

He went in his working clothes to make his 
speech. 

He felt queer when he found a room full of 
elegant ladies. 

But he made a good speech. 

Then he went to New York. 

There he walked the streets three weeks, 
looking for work. 

Nobody wanted a man who experimented. 

By chance, he one day went into an office 
where the telegraph instrument was out of 
repair. 

He offered to fix it. 

They laughed at him, but let him try. 

He succeeded in fixing it. 

They gave him a good position. 



A GREAT INVENTOR. 159 

From this time on there were better times 
for him. 

After this the world soon sang his praises ; 
and, in the next ten years, Fortune poured into 
his lap half a million dollars. 

This was the result of his thinking. 

The man who was in charge of the United 
States Patent Office called him '' the young 
man who keeps the pathway to the Patent 
Office hot with his footsteps." 

Mr. Edison believed that two messages 
could be sent over the same wire at the same 
time. 

Of course the world laughed at the idea. 

But soon our inventor managed to send 
four messages over the same wire at the same 
time. 

Then the world stopped laughing. 

People said, ''This young man is the greatest 



160 A GREAT INVENTOR. 

inventor of his age, and a discoverer as well/' 

The Grand Trunk train-boy had proved a 
genius. 

When twenty-six years of age, he married a 
young lady of Newark, Miss Mary Stillwell. 

Three years later he moved to Menlo Park. 

This w^as tw^enty-four miles from New York. 

It was not a pleasant place, but he hoped to 
work there in quiet. 

He had so many visitors that he could not 
work. 

He said, '' I think I shall fix a wire to my 
gate, and connect it with a battery so that it 
will knock everybody over that touches it.'' 

But he w^as really kind. 

He would smile pleasantly, and explain 
patiently to anyone who wished to know about 
his inventions. 

At Menlo Park he built a great laboratory. 



A GREAT INVENTOR. 161 

This was filled with batteries and machinery. 

Here all the world came to see his wonderful 
talking machine. 

It is called a phonograph. 

What do you think Mr. Edison called this 
machine? 

He said, '' I have invented a great many 
machines, but this is my baby, and I expect it 
to grow up and support me in my old age.'' 

Would you like to know the names of some 
of his inventions. 

One is the carbon telephone. 

The tasimeter measures the heat even of 
the far away stars. 

The electric pen multiplies copies of letters 
and drawings. 

Over sixty thousand are now in use in this 
country. 

The automatic telegraph permits the sending 



A GREAT INVENTOR. 163 

of several thousand words over the same wire 
in one minute. 

There are many others. 

Do you wonder that he is called '' The 
Wizard of Menlo Park ? ^' 

But his crowning discovery is the electric 
light. 

Some gentlemen of New York put one 
hundred thousand dollars into Mr. Edison's 
hands. 

They told him to experiment until he could 
make a light which every one would be glad 
to use. 

Many had tried to do this and had not 
succeeded. 

It is said that he tried two thousand sub- 
stances for the arch in his glass globe before 
he found one which suited him. 

Do you know what he chose at last ? 



164 A GREAT INVENTOR. 

Do you remember the plant which the boys 
and girls of India, China, and Japan know so 
well ? '' 

It is the bamboo. 

And it was bamboo which Mr. Edison chose. 

Oh, how glad this light made many people! 

In ten cotton factories in one town were 
men, women, and children working. 

They worked in rooms where gas was used. 

The gas injured their eyes and health. 

Now in those same factories there are sixty 
thousand electric lights. 

The bamboo burns six hundred hours before 
it has to be replaced. 

Would you like a picture of Mr. Edison ? 

Close your eyes then and think of him like 
this. 

He is five feet ten inches high. 

His face is boyish, but earnest„ 



A GREAT INVENTOR. 165 

He has light gray eyes. 

His hair is dark, slightly gray, and falls over 
his forehead. 

He is a pleasant man to see. 

He loves his work. 

For ten years he has averaged eighteen 
hours work a day. 

You have seen that he is not a man to give 
up easily. 

Once an invention of his — a printing press 
' — failed. 

He took five men into the upper part of his 
factory. 

He declared he would never come down 
until it worked satisfactorily. 

For two days and nights, and for twelve 
hours more, he worked without sleep. 

He conquered the difficulty. 

Then he slept thirty hours. 



166 A GREAT INVENTOR. 

He often works all night. 

He says he can work best when the rest of 
the world sleeps. 

But he likes fun, too. 

One day he said to his old friend, of whom 
he learned telegraphing, 

'' Look here — I am able to send a message 
from New York to Boston without any wire 
at all.^' 

'' That is impossible," said his friend. 

'' Oh, no, it's a new invention." 

''Well, how is it done?" said Mr. McKensie. 

''By sealing it up and sending by mail," was 
the comical answer. 

He has two children. 

One, a girl, Mary, is nicknamed " Dot." 

The other, a son, Thomas, is called " Dash." 

Mr. Edison doesn't like to have great 
dinners given in his honor. 



A GKEAT INVENTOR. 167 

But the world gives him great honors. 

At the Paris Exposition in 1881, two great 
rooms were filled with his inventions. 

The rooms were lighted with his lights. 

He receives letters daily in French, German, 
Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Turkish. 

Mr. Edison says, '' Anything is possible 
with electricity." 

That he is a genius, nobody can deny. 

But do you suppose he could have done all 
these things without his great reading, or if he 
had been a lazy person? 



B^ 



